


Summer

by niawen



Series: Heart of the Forest AU [2]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Aphrodisiacs, F/M, Forest Cryptid Muriel, Heart of the Forest, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Sex Pollen, reversed ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:40:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28615224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niawen/pseuds/niawen
Summary: Muriel and the seasons are interlinked now that he's the Heart of the Forest.  Summer has some unexpected effects.  From @Cvy 's Heart of the Forest AU
Relationships: Apprentice/Muriel (The Arcana)
Series: Heart of the Forest AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2096778
Comments: 2
Kudos: 51





	Summer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cvy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cvy/gifts).



It's instant, the second I cross the threshold I can feel it invading every pore. It's hot, almost oppressively so. Heavy and humid and uncomfortable. But it carries a sweetness so strong that it's almost overpowering. Outside the border of the forest the smell is incredibly enticing, wafting out from between the trees in cloying, invisible clouds and making my sinus tingle. It still is, I suppose, but it's more of a low burn now and I can feel it slowly working its way down my throat and into my lungs like some kind of intangible yet incredibly thick miasma. I can taste it on the back of my tongue like a spicy, floral, honey…

Even as I stand just inside, tall trees and thick foliage shading the forest floor from the sun, the heat only feels more intense but more like water, seeping into my limbs until it's exerting weight and pressure on me. I know without really thinking about it that it must have something to do with Muriel… the forest… _is_ him as near as we can tell and though we haven’t yet seen what summer does, we have seen the other seasons and the subtle changes the Heart affects on the forest and vice versa.

This is new, however, and while the desire to take a careful approach flares at the back of my mind, there’s a compulsion to stagger forward that I can’t quite control. While my senses aren’t superhuman, something is making my skin crawl a little and the fine hairs on my arms to stand on end. It isn’t an unpleasant, fearful feeling, to be honest, but it is strange and I can’t help but feel as though I’m being watched.

I’m not really paying attention to where I go, my eyes scanning constantly at my surroundings. It isn’t trained paranoia, however. There are plants I've never seen in colors I can barely wrap my head around- the vividness is a riot against the lush greens and rich browns. It frankly reminds me of the magical realms. For a second my feet pause as I wonder if something happened at the threshold, if the veil between realms was thin or torn… I wonder if it's possible that I’ve somehow crossed over…

But then another wave of that sweet-smelling humidity hits me and I lurch forward again. No, the sensory input from my body is too strong, too rooted in my mundane senses… things feel… abstract over there. Here, they feel heavy and real. I lean to examine some flowers as I pass, strange little blooms that are dark red with nearly black little feathery veins near the center-

And I notice- with a sinking sensation- that I’m not in control of my body, at least not all the way. I can’t stop moving forward, although now in the discord between my thoughts and the compulsion my gait is staggered and stiff at best. The second dismaying discovery I make is that something is… weighing down on my senses. The feeling of panic can’t seem to fully manifest and now the heavy air is burning my eyes and throat and lungs. I’m being moved, pulled towards something and I can’t stop the compulsion.

To make matters worse, nothing is familiar. No paths or familiar landmarks are evident among the spreading flowerbeds and huge blooms hanging from the branches… the forest feels more alien than maybe it ever has. But whatever’s infecting me is doing its best to keep me moving. 

I feel that in a normal case, panic would have been appropriate but I’m not processing things right and the emotion is suppressed somehow. Replaced instead with a heavy, rising heat that’s uncomfortable and the sensation of it roiling in my body is almost all i can think about.

I’m not even looking around anymore but I don’t notice enough to waste brainpower on it. My body’s so goddamned uncomfortable that my jaw tightens and my head aches. I’m thirsty, i’m covered in sweat, my clothes are sticking to me, I’m burning up and I viscerally hate it. It making me impatient and I move even faster. I find myself inhaling deeply, taking heavy pulls of that thick air into my lungs at every breath… and then I realize I’m panting.

I can still move my arms and I have to wipe clumsily at my mouth with my forearm. My mouth’s watering and as suspicions start to take shape my face heats even further. For a minute, there’s a spike of something much stronger- embarrassment cuts through the haze and I can feel it fully, barely covering the raw anxiety roiling in my chest- but then another lungful of whatever’s in the air quiets that down gently but inescapably.

I’m close, my whole body can feel it, and as I’m suddenly hit with a wave of something that nearly knocks me off my feet. I stagger, gasping and throwing an arm out for balance. I can see into a gulch below, nearly hidden from view by a huge, dense thicket of some flowering, thorny plant I’ve never seen before. My brain makes the connection just as another wave hits me and my legs give out beneath me with a weak tremor.

For a moment, I’m briefly grateful that whatever is happening to me has suppressed my sense of shame from manifesting. My nipples tighten so much they hurt and I can feel myself getting wetter and slicker by the second. My body is on _fire_. The need to do something about the oppressive warmth is absolutely maddening and it's like every nerve in me is lit up with signals that all want something. On its own, my body rights itself and I plod forward and down the embankment.

My legs are stupid and clumsy and I don’t know how I keep my balance as now i’m _throbbing_ with a full blown need that’s making it basically impossible to think all while that insistent sensation of being horrifically uncomfortable is eating away at my sanity- i do notice (faintly) that sensation ebbing just slightly as the heat radiating from the thicket in debilitating waves intensifies powerfully with every step.

By the time I reach the wall of vegetation I’m practically out of my damn head. I shove past small, flexible branches, inadvertently showering myself with condensation and pollen and a healthy dusting of tiny petals. And, by this time, there’s no hiding what’s wrong with me. My brain wants nothing more than to wallow in blurry, hastily imagined images of finally getting the satisfaction the ache between my thighs is demanding. It's a struggle not to drool, the chafe of my nipples against my clothes is going to drive me absolutely insane in a few more minutes-

But a wave of that heat smashes into me again and I- honestly- nearly black out from it. It feels like it rattles my whole being and I can tell with my limited cognitive capabilities that whatever’s causing it must be immensely powerful and…

 _Oh_.

The answer is so incredibly, stupidly obvious as I push into the small clearing. 

Something big- something with feathers- is huddled up and obviously trying not to shift restlessly. 

Muriel is, from the look of him, fighting a desperate battle to keep control of himself, his eyes liquid-looking and fixed downwards, one hand pressing absently at the base of his throat to coax his pulse into calming. The other is clenched on his sweaty, bare thigh hard enough to imprint on his hot flesh. His heavy wings are limp and his body is bare except for the remnants of a robe it looked like he tore partially off in frustration.

There’s something else new as well, a scent. Stronger than even whatever the rest of the forest is steeping in, sharp and deep and spicy- There’s a pitch in my guts both from me realizing its somehow coming from Muriel and from the immense cascade of heat it causes. My senses are hanging on by a thread. “Muriel,” I croak out, unable to think of anything other than the way our skin feels sliding against each other. “Muriel, what… is…-”

He looks up slowly, his head turning mechanically but his eyes are absolutely glassy and enormously dilated when they find mine. For a second I think maybe I’d startled him because he practically launches to his feet… but it's obvious in his face (even to my very impaired brain) that he’s lightyears further gone than me.

His hands clench and he _whines,_ deep and low in the back of his throat, exerting frankly an astronomical amount of self control in standing still, though it's impossible to miss the impatient rise and fall of his chest. “Go,” he growls, and his voice is deep and dark with self control hanging on by the thinnest thread. “...You’ll. Get hurt.” He can barely move his lips to speak and his jaw’s so tight a muscle twinges visibly just below his ear. It's obvious that even as a demigod, his unearthly powers don’t include enough focus to overcome whatever was happening to him.

“ _Go_ ,” he orders again, more sharply and urgently than a second ago, though the raspiness to his voice is easy to hear and it gives away how much he’s exerting to fight _something_ down. He’s flushed dark, sweaty, I wonder if he looks worse than I feel. A minute ago I wouldn’t have thought it possible but he can barely talk. Honestly, disregarding the movement towards me, he can barely control himself, his eyes are liquid and hazy in the dim lighting and I can see his fists clenching and releasing spastically in my periphery.

But the thing is I can’t move. Even if he orders it, even if he pitches a fit about it. I literally can’t. And now I’m certain it's his fault. Impulsivity and wild gods are never a safe mix but I’m incapable of leaving and incapable of rationalizing. My remaining braincells inform me that Muriel is experiencing the same thing. Caution to the wind then I guess. It's all i can manage with my body burning up the way it is.

I take a stilted step forward, then another and he makes another low noise from somewhere deep in his broad torso. His hair is wild with perspiration and he looks like he may have been pulling on it to keep his wits about him. He sucks in a breath and watches me like a hawk, his mouth parted to facilitate his panting and his overbright eyes loom in his carved, intense face. “Don’t,” he tries to warn, his voice thick and rough. “I can’t… I _can’t…”_ And what it is that he can’t do is pretty obvious. His whole body is wound tight and he’s incredibly tense, shoulders tight and high, body rippling with hypersensitivity. I can tell that he’s literally an instant from losing it and that’s why he wants me gone… he probably should have remembered I’m only human when he decided to turn this entire forest into a potent pheromone cloud. There’s a part of me that wonders how I’m the only thing staggering through the forest to him but honestly my brain isn’t at its normal capacity right that second.

The compulsion’s too strong to fight off and it's obvious Muriel’s losing his own battles. “It’s okay…” I manage to rasp out, my whole being burning from whatever I’m inhaling in this shaded little glen. I reach out to him and the dam breaks the instant before the pads of my fingers contact his boiling hot arm.

Honestly I’m not even sure what happens for a second. The initial instant of contact is electric and my blood surges but he’s moving fast and hard and I can barely keep up. First its his hands on either side of my head, then his lips crushing against mine so hard our teeth clack together, but his kissing is absolutely voracious and messy and entirely unrestrained. I meet force with force and the fire raging in my body changes to something intensely satisfying, like it knows the hunger will be sated soon enough.

His hands slide roughly down my back until the forward lean of his body has me bending over backwards and one large hand reaches to seize the back of my knee so he can pull me into him even more tightly. I’m off balance, dipped so far backwards I can feel blood rushing to my head as Muriel’s bent nearly in half over me. Of course his hunger has an affect on me- in a much more literal sense now that the forest is reacting to him like this- and I grab his skull to bring him in.

The noise he lets out is gruff and hungry and pure sex, his muscular body practically vibrating with it. He’s also hard as hell against me, I can feel him straining fit to burst and I wonder how long he’s been fighting this back. A sharp pain shoots through me and I can’t help the ragged groan that leaves me at the feel of sharp teeth sinking into the tendons that slope between my neck and shoulder. Muriel’s shivering with need and I can both hear and feel him inhaling deeply- _panting_ \- against my overheated flesh.

His hips jerk against me and he growls in frustration, I can tell that exerting any control at all is killing him and maybe my mind’s been turned to sex too because I think getting him to just let go might not be a bad idea. My fingers tighten more roughly than they maybe need to, nails scratching at his scalp and my thumb pressing greedily against his sharp cheekbones.

He rights himself, pulling me with him and counterbalancing my weight with apparent ease. The heat in the little grove is skyrocketing, I think, I'm drenched in sweat and Muriel’s skin is so hot he has to be fevered. But he’s also rock solid beneath my touch, even when he shifts to a new place on my throat to sink his teeth into. Almost immediately his hips lurch into me roughly, his hands wrenching me in tight but this time there’s a word hissing out of his mouth- my name. Just… over and over again in a heated, breathless rush. I can’t deny the affect it has on me either.

My legs tremble under my weight and I’m suddenly righteously impatient. Along with being very overheated, Muriel sounds like he’s fevered now too, saying my name like a mantra as he continues to find places to nip possessively. He groans, strangled and low as he presses his hot tongue to a few pinpricks of blood his teeth have left. There’s a few rushed “m’sorry”s in there now too but his words are messy and run together in his heat. He bounces slightly and I realize that he’s still fighting himself, that’s what’s happening at the same time his strong fingers curl so tightly and greedily in my clothes that the seams creak.

He doesn’t seem like he’s able to figure out his next move even as he ruts into me roughly and his hands are greedy. Succumbing to my own weakness I reach to pull part of my tunic up in the interest of getting rid of it. 

His reaction is _instant_. Taking it as an invitation he fists two great handfuls in the material and tears it off me in the next second. I don’t even have the energy to be mad- the release of stifling hot flesh to the open air is a tremendous relief and I sigh heavily before I can stop myself. The sound prompts a full body shudder and low, growling groan from Muriel as he claws down my back a little to tear at my pants.

Without thinking I pull his skull to the side and kiss him- as hard as I can- pressing up against his hot torso as his muscular frame shakes under the touch. The dam breaks at that point and the world spins as he manhandles me in a frenzy to position himself. He’s not overtly rough, even as he forces me to my back on the soft grass demandingly, but he is at the end of his patience and I can tell he can no longer restrain himself.

His teeth are latched onto me again, closed tight around a nipple and I arch sharply beneath his heavy body, sucking air in through my teeth loudly at the intense sensation. He doesn’t let go, kneeing between my thighs and fisting his own cock impatiently. He’s growling like a feral animal when he manages to lean in enough to press the fat head of his cock to my entrance. In any other situation I might have been slightly embarrassed to find myself absolutely dripping for him, everything between my legs throbbing acutely for what he’s about to give me… But there’s something in the air, its making me stupid and hungry and so so ready.

  
But honestly the bite of humiliation is dulled by how out-of-his-head Muriel is. He’s wild with it. He lines up as hastily as he can and starts to press in. He groans thickly like its the most intense relief he’s ever had and even though the stretch is pronounced and tighter than hell i can’t help but jerk my hips up into him impatiently. 

His jaw unclenches and the sensation of an apologetic tongue sliding hotly against the marked flesh circling my nipple makes my whole body spasm. His arms wrap greedily around my shoulders and neck and he pulls me into him tightly, smothering me with his huge, heavy body as his hips start absolutely pistoning into me. I can barely breath, I'm covered in sweat, and it's undeniably uncomfortable but the feel of him losing his mind and losing composure so fast has a reciprocal effect on my own arousal and somehow I'm only barely hanging on by a thread.

He comes quickly. And first. I can feel him emptying himself in me, the ungodly mess it makes of us, and hear the jagged sigh of relief issuing from his flushed, parted lips. But he doesn’t stop thrusting, driving deep and hard in me and making the mess even more pronounced. I can’t tell if he’s doing it for my benefit or if he’s really not sated yet but it's hot. Too hot to deal with, honestly. I edge orgasm for only an instant or two before I’m unceremoniously shoved over 

I’m panting against the ground but the reprieve only lasts a few short moments. I can feel him shift- his hot, hungry mouth follows my midline and he tracks sharp teeth down my stomach and lower. I can’t help but shift nervously, sensing that his hunger hasn’t abated (I mean, mine hasn’t either, really) even as he continues his very determined trek downwards. I fist one of his horns nervously and then several things happen so quickly i can’t parse through them. His tongue laps brazenly between my come-smeared thighs and I jolt violently at the sudden, extremely acute stimulus, yelping gracelessly at the powerful input and arousal at the very idea. My grip on him wrenches him in closer and he growls like something wild and untamed. 

His tongue is hot and wet and shameless, collecting his own come off my hot, shaking thighs and its enough to make my face boil- but it isn’t enough to cool the arousal scorching up through my body. When he’s satisfied with the job so far, he shoves his face further into me until he can part his full lips and press his tongue to my clit aggressively. Not entirely meaning to, I wrench his horn in again and it makes him redouble his efforts. He adjusts his position without pulling back, wrapping his arms around my thighs and dragging me in to his ravenous mouth. I realize that he’s moaning, his deep, throaty purrs vibrating against me in such a way that it makes my brain turn to liquid and I can only gasp stupidly under his assertive and extremely enthusiastic ministrations.

He uses his whole mouth to render me a gibbering mess to, not content with a simple taste, apparently. His tongue thrusts inside of me while he makes the neediest noises I’ve ever heard out of him (out of anyone?) and every once in a while there’s an electrifying scrape of teeth that makes my whole body spasm. He shows absolutely no sign of stopping any time soon either, content to tonguefuck me into paralysis while he makes those needy, pleasurable little noises like the act is somehow doing more to him than me. There’s no way, i think numbly, but that’s about all my brain can manage before I’m back under the floodline of pleasured haze and thinking full and complete thoughts becomes too much.

Muriel’s content to taste his fill, to my muted mortification, and I squirm ineffectually beneath his adamant weight in a lust-drunk fog while my body ripples and spasms and manages to ride out a number of orgasms that shake me to my core. Every time I think I’m done, ever time I think he must have had enough by now, he just gathers his efforts and applies himself again. He’s unstoppable and insatiable and it takes many, many attempts to get that out of my gormless mouth.

He shifts and I’m almost relieved that he’s getting up- except he’s only readjusting himself and when his hot, soft lips kiss up against my clit and then _suck_ i can’t help the shout that cuts through the heavy air. Instantly, I’m thrown into a churning orgasm, my mind fully liquefies, and before I can rationalize myself I’ve got both of his horns in my sweaty hands and I’m fucking his face as hard as I can. I can only look down for an instant but his immensely pleasured expression belies how much he’s getting off on this but then everything's gone again as my body gives in to another round of throbbing heat.  
  



End file.
